Three months’ jail plus deportation for Honduran caught three times selling to undercover cops in San Francisco
A Honduran drug trafficker, bailed after twice being caught selling fentanyl to undercover cops in San Francisco, who was then caught selling fentanyl to another undercover officer, was given a ‘time served’ sentence of three months and sent for deportation today in federal court.
Jose Montoya Morales, 21, sold fentanyl to an undercover police officer on the evening of May 28 2025 at the intersection of 6th and Jessie Streets in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood.
Two weeks later he sold fentanyl to another undercover officer one block from his earlier arrest. Law enforcement tracked his Toyota vehicle to his home in San Jose where, on executing a search warrant on July 2, they found methamphetamine, fentanyl, digital scales, drug packaging materials and Montoya’s Honduran identification card.
Court records show that visiting judge Gregory Syren imposed a warrantless search condition and banned him from the locations where he had been seen dealing during a hearing at the city’s Hall of Justice on July 10.
After being released, Morales again went straight back to slinging fentanyl. He sold the drug to another undercover police officer at the same location as his first arrest on August 20.
Today in courtroom four of San Francisco federal courthouse Morales was sentenced to three months plus a day. He earlier pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.
“I am remorseful for what I did and I understand very clearly that I am going to be deported to my country,” Morales told the court through a Spanish interpreter.
“I will say that there is an argument that this sentence is too light given the crime,” said U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, “but I believe that it’s appropriate to defer to the parties’ agreement and, partticularly given that this is part of the U.S. Attorney’s Tenderloin Enforcement Program…the comprehensive effort to diminish drug transactions in the area, particularly fentanyl.”
Morales was dealt with under federal prosecutors’ ineffective ‘fast track’ program. Intended to rapidly remove illegal alien drug dealers from the city by using the threat of lengthy sentences to secure guilty pleas and uncontested deportations, the scheme has done little to loosen Hondurans’ grip on the city’s fentanyl trade and several deportees have already returned.
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